Tag: nourish

We’d spent the morning pottering around the kitchen, listening to Bon Iver and searching our favourite blogs for some breakfast loaf inspiration. A popular theme that we came across was Paleo Loaf. Paleo baking is definitely ‘in’ at the moment.

Now, we’re not the type to lean towards a particular diet label (i.e. paleo, vegan, vegetarian, high carb etc), but we are gluten intolerant so paleo bread is actually quite suited to our sensitive stomaches. Being paleo, it has no flour, almond meal is the substitute. This loaf is not only gluten free, it is also dairy free, sugar free and high in protein! The eggs give it the protein punch, sorry vegans!

Much of our inspiration behind our cooking is from Jacqueline Alwill and her ‘Brown Paper Bag Blog’. Her beautifully presented meals and recipes have an abundance of nutrients, incorporating all major food groups. She includes red and white meat, cheese and eggs within her recipes, demonstrating a balanced and sensible approach to wellness. We very much admire her cooking and frequently check her blog for updates – the recipe for the pesto that we’re about to post is adapted from her page.

This recipe is very basic! It’ll take you around 20 minutes to prepare so very convenient for a mid week meal

1. Place your finely sliced sweet potato on a tray. Brush with a tad of olive oil, salt and pepper. Back in oven set at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes.

2. Whilst sweet potato is in the oven, sauté your brussel sprouts and peas in a wok on high heat in a bit of coconut oil (or water). Keep sautéing till the brussels begin to soften and possibly turn a little brown at the edges. Once ready mix through the black olives and evenly distribute onto two plates.

3. The sweet potato should be ready now, remove from oven and delicately layer onto the greens.

4. With your tinned sardines, evenly halve and coarsely break over the potato.

As we are now in winter we have adapted our diet to match the cooler season. We tend to not eat raw foods, opting for roasted or lightly sautéed vegetables. Lots of dark leafy greens, root vegetables such as pumpkin and sweet potato and an endless supply of bone broth are now staples in our kitchen.

Although this may seem strange to some (sorry vegans) – we absolutely love coming home from a long day at work/uni to a mug of steaming bone broth followed by a nourishing and warming meal. *We’ll be posting many more winter warmer recipes so stay tuned!

Make sure you take the time to give your body the attention it needs during these cooler months – maybe make a stew or have a crack at making your own broth. Your body will most definitely thank you for it.

Raw foods, fruits and juices can go on hold for just a bit, they’ll have their time to shine in summer and spring!

Ingredients: Serves two as a main or three as a side dish

– 2 cups of kale stems

– 2 cups of roughly chopped silverbeet

-1/2 cup of finely sliced leek

– 1-2 carrots sliced (we used pre-roasted carrots that we had on hand in the fridge)

– 1 cup of cooked quinoa

– 2-4 boiled eggs (…depending on hunger status)

– 1/4 cup of goats feta

– 1/3 cup of beef bone broth (48 hours homemade)

– 2 tsp of pepita seeds

– 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar

– 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

– 1 tbsp of maple syrup

– Pepper

– Himalayan salt

Method

1. Chop all greens (leek, kale and silver beet) and sauté in a wok on high heat with the bone broth. We have a big batch of beef bone broth in the freezer that we keep in the refrigerator to have on hand for cooking and drinking (so nourishing). If you don’t have bone broth, sauté in olive oil or water)

2. Whilst the greens are sautéing away, slice your carrots and drizzle them with the maple syrup (we didn’t use fresh carrots, we already had roasted carrots in the fridge so if your carrots are raw, they’ll need longer under the grill). Place your already roasted or raw carrots under the grill on a high heat. You want them to sizzle so they gain that caramelisation.

3. Place your eggs in a saucepan with a tad of salt to boil.

4. Now that your eggs are boiling, your greens are sautéing and your carrots are sizzling, start by assembling your plate. Layer your cooked quinoa (again we have a big batch of already cooked quinoa in the fridge that we add for quick mid-week lunches) in a shallow bowl. and drizzle with a tsp of olive oil and apple cider vinegar.

5. Your greens should now be ready, with a ladle, scoop the greens and place them nicely onto the bed of quinoa.

6. The carrots should be pretty much done now. Take them from the grill and add to your pile (remember, if the carrots are raw they’ll need longer)

7. We leave our eggs to boil for 5:20 minutes – this is the perfect amount of time for hard boiled eggs. Soft boiled eggs will just require about 4 to 4:30 minutes. When you have the desired consistency for your eggs, place them delicately onto your nourishing plate.

Our version of the typical ‘mums homemade pumpkin soup’ has added immune boosting properties with the addition of turmeric and ginger. Super nourishing and warming on a chilly night. We love to get a little over board with our toppings, adding avocado, wilted kale, cheese, extra spice, fresh herbs and sometimes some protein like poached chicken. The options are endless!

Like most of our recipes, this soup is easy to throw together – all you need are a few staple spices like turmeric and cumin, herbs like parsley and thyme and veggies.

** Also, the small side bowl in the above image is a sneak peak of our pumpkin and sweet potato curry. The recipe for this little gem will be up on the blog soon!

Ingredients

– 3/4 of a large butternut pumpkin

– 1 Leek

– 2 small carrots

– 750 ml of water (1 Litre if you want a ‘thinner’ consistency)

Use a homemade vegetable stock if you have that on hand, if not water is fine! (we used water)

Toppings: Avocado, wilted kale, parsley and bocconcini cheese. We also added a ‘Moroccan souk’ spice that we purchased from a spice shop in the city. You can just finish with either dusting some more turmeric or quickly whipping up your own dukkah.

As we are now in Autumn.. pasta dishes are going to be enjoyed on a more regular basis, therefore we will be posting some super easy sauce and pasta combos to get rid of those boring pasta dishes that everyones used to having! This is our take on ‘Creamy’ Mushroom and Chicken Pasta.

We always try and cook with 100% organic ingredients.

Ingredients: Serves TWO as a main

Organic Spelt Penne Pasta (around 1 cup uncooked) – We use spelt as we are able to tolerate this grain best (gluten intolerance issues… don’t ask)

Two Organic small Chicken Breasts

Mushrooms (as many as you can get your hands on) – We used flat, button and shiitake

One Organic Broccoli head

One small Organic Zucchini

Fresh Organic Spinach (One handful)

Fresh Ricotta (3 tablespoons)

One Onion Shallot

One clove of Garlic

White Wine

Fresh Basil

Pepper (to taste)

Himalayan Salt (to taste)

Coconut oil (one heaped teaspoon)

Method:

1) Cut up chicken breasts into small cubed pieces

2) Wash all the vegetables ‘obsessively’ well!

3) Chop up mushrooms and zucchini into quarterly pieces.

4) Break apart broccoli head and use your hands to break (‘shred’) into smaller pieces

5) Finely shop the onion, garlic and two basil leaves

6) With the coconut oil, place onion, garlic and basil onto a large deep frying pan

7) Sauté until golden and add a splash of white wine

8) Combine the mushrooms, zucchini and ‘shredded’ broccoli to the pan and salute until golden

9) Add a few more dashes of white wine and three tablespoons of ricotta

10) Mix well, turn down the heat and simmer with lid on. Keep as eye on the sauce and If you find it becomes a little dry add a few splashes of water

11) Pop two pots of water (one for the pasta and one for the chicken) on the stove and bring both to boil

12) Once pots are boiling, add the chicken and poach for around 4-6 minutes (this will vary on how large the chicken pieces are). Add the pasta to the other pot and cook for around 10 mins or less. We like our pasta ‘al dente‘ thus we leave it coking for less time.

13) Back to the sauce, add some seasoning (pepper and salt to taste).

14) Once pasta and chicken are ready, combine all to the creamy mushrooms pan and mix well.

15) Last ingredient to add is the fresh spinach

15) Now its ready to serve! Top with some fresh basil and a little more seasoning and voila!

We’ve been feeling a little low and run down due to an overload of uni and part time jobs. So in an attempt to cure our poor sleep deprived and stressed souls, we decided to make a green soup. We love our greens but aren’t really the types to start the morning with a green smoothie so a green soup works for us perfectly. The generous amount of turmeric and garlic gives this delightful meal an immunity boost – just ready to fight off cold and flu season. The added packed chicken also adds a nice touch of protein and the haloumi just tops it off with that ‘creaminess’ that every soup requires!

1. Start by preparing all your green vegetables. Thoroughly wash them and dice into 2 cm pieces (the size doesn’t matter all that much as they’ll be blended at the end)

2. Heat the coconut oil in a pot and once hot, stir fry the onion and garlic with a dash of water. Once the onion gathers a bit of colour, add another dash of water plus the turmeric and cumin. Let the spices mix with the onion and garlic. This should start to smell very inviting!

3. Next step, add all your veggies, bay leaf and himalayan salt. Let this green goodness tenderise for a couple of minutes

4. Add your 1 litre of water. Put the lid on and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.

5. In the meantime, heat up another pot of water with a pinch of salt and dice your chicken breast into 2-3 cm pieces. When the water has reached boiling, add your chicken and let it boil for about 5-7 minutes.

6. Whilst the chicken is cooking, this should give you enough time to prepare your haloumi. You can either place the haloumi in a fry pan to brown the edges or you can place the cheese until a grill. Up to you! This should only take a few minutes

7. When the chicken is ready, (you still want it to be succulent so check it every couple of minutes) strain it and place to side.

8. Return your attention to the soup. The veggies should be quite tender at this point. Now all you need to do is blend it all up with a blender stick (is that what it’s called…..?)

9. Ladle the soup into four bowls. Next place the haloumi and chicken in the middle. Finish with a generous sprinkle of homemade dukkah and fresh parsley

10. You could also toast a comforting thick slice of dark rye bread with a drizzle of olive oil. Our mum’s wholemeal spelt would also work wonderfully.

10. EAT

We hope you like it! Please let us know on instagram (@thymes.two) what you think and if you have any suggestions!